I would like to eat healthier and move in a more vegetarian direction? How do I start, any advice?

Question

I've lived over 40 years on the basic all American diet and am beginning to feel the effects. I'm overweight, over stressed, over anxious and feel overly toxic. I don't have any friends that could mentor me in a conversion, but all would be interested in what I'm doing. I can't say that I want to eliminate all meat products 100% but would like to greatly reduce them. I want to keep cheese in my diet. I've been eating these salad wraps on whole grain with feta and a miso dressing I've concocted but I need more ideas.

Any great websites? I'm reading this month's Veggie Life mag and it's great!! What's a typical day look like for a vegatarian? We don't have a lot of veggie restaurants where I live, and I can see where a diet of all salads would get dull....what else can you suggest? Thanks for reading this long question!

Answer 1

All of these answers are great. However those of us who have been doing it for awhile have to remember how much more work it seems like to start cooking vegetarian meals.

The traditional American/Canadian idea is, "What are we having for supper?" "Pork!" and then some side dishes to go with it. I find that since becoming vegetarian several years ago, I instead usually cook only one large item for supper, which is a mix of foods . This could include stir-fry, soup, stew, casserole, or pasta. Anyway, you have to get used to not thinking of having ONE THING for supper, but having a whole mix of things in one dish.

Here are my basic tips:

1. Don't rely on cheese. If you just increase the cheese in your diet while you decrease the meat, you'll gain weight (or at least won't lose any) and won't feel any better. Use cheese if you like, but don't make it a staple, and certainly not daily.

2. Replace your protein. Remember, there is protein in all whole grains (brown rice, brown bread, brown pasta), but not in sufficient quantities -- you need to increase soy, nut, bean intake. Which brings me to #3.....

3. Eat beans. Nobody tells you this when you start being vegetarian, but beans are a HUGE part of a healthy veg diet with enough protein. Also, if you combine beans with a source of vitamin C (like tomatoes or fruit juice) you will increase your iron absorption greatly. I don't know why people talk about a "vegetarian diet" instead of a "daily bean diet" but it really is vital.

4. Eat vegetables. My mother is nearly vegetarian because she eats peanut butter, cottage cheese and toast. This does not a healthy diet make. Vegetables and grains should make up the majority of your diet -- and whole grains.

That's all I can add to these already great answers. Good luck.

Answer 2

Here are tips:

1. Take your time - my journey from meat eater took about a year.
2. Start out using some basic subsitutes for the meat you are used to in foods where you won't even notice - ground meat replacements are available in the frozen food sections.
3. Leave meat off things that don't need it - pizza, salad, spag, etc.
4. Get some good cookbooks when you are ready to branch into more interesting foods - Moosewood books and New Farm Vegetarian are two of my favorites.
5. If you are worried about what to each check out the book "Diet for a New America" it will cover many of the health items you are intereted in.

A good start is to pick one or two nights a week as "veggie" night. Then work your way from there stoping wherever you feel most comfortable which might be 2 nights a week or 7 nights a week up to you.

Answer 3

For cooking at home: Bocca and Morningstar Farms make meat substitutes that allow you to make familiar-looking foods without meat. (I especially like the Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burgers - they don't taste at all like meat, but you can put toppings on the way you would with a meat burger.) Both companies make crumbles that look like and have the texture of crumbled ground beef, plus various burgers. I never eat the fake chicken because it tastes too much like the real thing, which I'm very allergic to, so I dislike it even though there is no chicken in it! If you like chicken, you'll love it. I cook a lot of Italian dishes just using cheeses, no meat. And tofu, despite all the jokes, is really very good and can usually be used to substitute n familiar recipes for any kind of meat. Get some good veggie cookbooks - there are tons of them out there. Veggie food in general tends to be a little spicier than meat dishes, but you can season to taste.

For eating out: Italian, Indian, and Thai restaurants will almost always have plenty of veggie dishes. Get adventurous! Chinese restaurants have lots of stuff that looks veggie but is made with chicken broth, and they'll tell you it's vegetarian but often it's not. (I'm allergic to chicken and so stay away from Chinese restaurants generally.) Omelets are often available - ask if a place serves breakfast all day, as many do, and it's usually easy to get eggs, pancakes, etc. Try a Greek omelet with feta cheese and spinach - who needs meat! At a steak house I order a baked potato and a salad - the baked potatos are usually huge, and that is more filling than just salad. Burger King has excellent veggie burgers, and Arby's has baked potatoes and mozzarella sticks. McDonalds will make you an Egg McMuffin without meat, but only during breakfast hours.

Good luck - cutting back on meat is good for you, good for the earth, and saves a lot of suffering.

Answer 4

Oddly enough I've had good luck with the small magazine style cook books you can buy at the check out line of the supermarket. The best recipes in them are chilis, stews, and curries. Try some of these:

Black beans, canelli beans, chopped green chilis, chopped onions and white corn chili

Corn, pinto beans, chopped zuchini and rice in a stew

Butternut squash, chick peas and eggplant curry

Beans and rice together are important for creating protien. Beans are also good because they contain a lot of fiber. Tofu is good because it takes on the flavor of whatever sauce you cook it in.

Don't try to go totally vegetarian overnight. Try one vegetarian meal a day, then slowly decrease the amount of meat in your other meal. If you reach a point where you're not feeling well back off of it. Some people just need the animal protien.

You can also do well just changing which animal protiens you eat. Chicken and fish good - pork and beef bad. Deep fried foods bad. Try switching from real eggs to egg beaters to lower cholesterol and fat. READ THE LABLES on processed foods. Milano cookies have more fat than bacon. Baked Cheetos taste just as good as the fried ones. Hummus and pita is a healthier snack than most others you can pick. Just be aware of what you're eating.

And most especially, don't beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon now and then. Just try to do a little better each meal and see where it leads. Good luck!

Answer 5

You don't need to omit meat to become healthy, on the contrary. Eating a wider range of fruit and veg, and being more conscious of your nutrition helps, but omitting meat doesn't by itself. It does depends on how much meat you eat though, a huge amount can obviously be bad.

Answer 6

I get a lot of good ideas at veganlunchbox.blogspot. Although the ideas are all vegan, you could adapt them to vegetarian. There are also cookbook suggestions and some recipes. Good luck!

Answer 7

cheese items is dangerous to health.don't eat it lot. add green vegetables.

Answer 8

eat lots of protien not the meat kind like the kind you get from soy beans and to fo YOUR WELCOME